Summers said she is “deeply ashamed” of her actions and takes responsibility for continuing to communicate with Epstein.
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Former Harvard University president Larry Summers will resign from his faculty position at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until then, a university spokesperson confirmed. The Harvard Crimson on Wednesday. The decision is the latest in Summers’ attempts to reduce his public responsibilities after revelations of his longtime friendship with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement to RedHarvard’s student newspaper, Summers said the decision was “difficult” and “grateful for the thousands of students and colleagues I have had the privilege of teaching and working with since I came to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
“I have no official responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward to the time to participate in research, analysis, and commentary on many problems of the world economy,” he said.
Summers wrote to Epstein for years after his 2008 conviction, at one point seeking advice on how to pursue his younger colleague and calling Epstein “a great wingman.” A few months ago, Summers also resigned from his teaching position at Harvard and resigned from the OpenAI Board of Directors. The New York Times refused to renew his contract with the Opinion division, the Center for American Progress terminated his fellowship and Summers left an advisory role at the policy research center The Budget Lab at Yale University. In previous public statements, Summers said she was “deeply ashamed” of her actions and took responsibility for continuing to communicate with Epstein after she was convicted of soliciting sex from a minor in 2008. Summers was not implicated in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Richard Axel, a professor of pathology and biochemistry at Columbia University, announced Tuesday that he will step down as director of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute to “focus on research and teaching in my lab.” He will also resign from his position as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Axel first got to know Epstein in the 1980s, The New York Times report. In 2007 New York about Epstein, Axel described him as “extremely intelligent and exploratory” and said, “He has the ability to communicate that other minds cannot.” Axel also had dinner with Epstein and helped the children of Epstein’s colleagues try to get accepted to Columbia. Axel is not involved in any criminal activity.
“My previous meeting with Jeffrey Epstein was a huge error in judgment, which I deeply regret,” Axel wrote in a statement. “I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues. I am aware of the problems this has caused, and I will work to restore this trust. What has resulted from Epstein’s appalling behavior, the harm he has caused to so many people, makes my relationship with him extremely painful and inexcusable.”
And in recent weeks, Bard University announced that it had opened an external investigation into communications between Epstein and university president Leon Botstein. The university is also hosting a New York gala celebrating Botstein.
